Canadian Music Round-Up

Smallman Retrospective:

I’ve been working on a retrospective for Smallman Records since as you may already know, the label closed its doors earlier this year. If you want the long story, head here, but all you need to know is that I’ll be sharing little chunks over the next couple of months in this space as I compile them together to tell one big oral history for my final project. Today you’re taken back to the beginning, since Layaway Plan front man Terry Oh introduces you to his Moose Jaw, SK band that put out the third Smallman release in 1997. The band went on to release two more records on the label before calling it quits. Terry shares the story of how his band got involved with Smallman in the first place. And as an interesting fact, Choke and Moneen got involved afterwards when Layaway Plan played shows with them and told Smallman about those bands:

"Smallman had two bands right off the get go, however 12 Eyes and Farley Mohawk were the bands the founders of the label were in, so we were technically the first "signed" band. We got offered an opening spot with 12 Eyes and were stoked to be playing with them, since they were one of my personal favourite bands at the time. We found out at the show that Jason (Smith, from 12 Eyes) and Rob (Krause, from Farley Mohawk) owned a label. They loved our set and asked if we would be interested in submitting a demo, so we gave them the cassette tape we had and they contacted us as soon as they got home. They told us they wanted to set up a showcase in Winnipeg for us so we came out to play. We signed the day after in a cafe on Osborne street."

[button=http://smallmanrecords.com/mp3/LayawayPlan_SoFarBehind.mp3]Layaway Plan - "So Far Behind"[/button]

[button=http://smallmanrecords.com/mp3/LayawayPlan_ComeOutFighting.mp3]Layaway Plan - "Come Out Fighting"[/button]

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In case you missed them during the week, here are the posts made about Canadian content:

Bedouin Soundclash Tour Dates

Broken Social Scene DVD Pre-Order

Comeback Kid Music Video for “Because of All”

Rich Aucoin Tour Trailer

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Additional News:

Karkwa won the 2010 Polaris Music Prize.

Gob will be heading back into the studio to finish the new record they promised earlier this year.

The Autumn Portrait will release The Design is Over on October 5th.

Hunter is recording.

The Falcon Lake Incident release featuring The Weakerthans will be out on October 19th.

K’naan didn’t take the stage at a charity concert earlier this week.

Our Lady Peace will enter the studio this October it seems.

Drake has officially taken up residence in the States for tax purposes.

Metric want you to help them remix Fantasies.

Dave Mustaine from Megadeth is now managing Baptized in Blood.

Yell At Birds will release a 7 inch this November titled Guilty Pleasures.

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Additional Music and Videos:

A Simple Plan demo called “Famous for Nothing” is streaming here.

Download a song called “Hell, Heaven” by Parlovr here.

Watch the trailer for the upcoming Feist documentary here.

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Additional Tour Dates:

Check out some Animal Nation tour dates:

Sept. 30th – Ottawa, ON – Mercury Lounge
Oct. 1st – Brantford, ON – Therapy Lounge
Oct. 5th – Toronto, ON – Bread and Circus
Oct. 15th – Saskatoon, SK – The Fez
Oct. 20th – Edmonton, AB – New City Compound
Oct. 22nd – Fernie, BC – Fernie Hotel
Oct. 23rd – Nelson, BC – Spirit Bar
Oct. 26th – Rossland, BC – Flying Steamshovel
Oct. 29th – Golden, BC – The Rockwater
Oct. 30th - Banff, AB - The Devil's Gap
Nov. 4th – Victoria, BC – Upstairs Cabaret
Nov. 9th – Vancouver, BC – Media Club
Nov. 11th – Whistler, BC – Garfinkel’s

The Sainte Catherines have some shows booked soon:

Oct 2
Le Petit Pavillon Agricole Rimouski, PQ, CANADA
Oct 9
Bar Le Cactus Thetford, QC, CANADA
Oct 28
Studio Theatre Salle Andre-Mathieu Laval, QC, CANADA
Oct 29
Obriens Pub Boston, MA
Oct 30
The Fest 9 Gainesville, Florida
Oct 31
The Fest 9 Gainesville, Florida
Nov 11
Cabaret de la Dernière-Chance Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 12
Katacombes Montreal, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 13
Chasse Galerie Lavaltrie, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 14
Maison des Jeunes Kekpart Longueuil, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 15
Bar Le Magog Sherbrooke, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 16
La Piaule Drummondville, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 17
L'Agitee Quebec City, Quebec, CANADA
Nov 20
Hard Luck Club Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Nov 27
Le Bunker Chicoutimi, Quebec, CANADA
Dec 17
Party Expo Brooklyn, New-York, NY
Dec 18
TBA Albany, New-York

Bison B.C. have some Canadian dates coming up next month:

October
12 - Armstrong, BC - Branding Iron Pub
14 - Saskatoon, SK - Amigo's
15 - Brandon, MB - Parthenon Pizza
16 - Winnipeg, MB - The Royal Albert Arms
19 - London, ON - London Music Hall
20 - Ottawa, ON - Dekcuf
21 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore
22 - Toronto, ON - Sneaky Dee's
23 - Hamilton, ON – Casbah

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If you’d like to submit news for this round-up, email me at deborah.remus@absolutepunk.net or send me a PM with “Canadian Round-Up” in the subject line.

i miss smallman records already

Baptized In Blood <3

Although seeing that 3 out of the 12 songs are from their Gutterbound CD is disappointing. I hope they are atleast rerecorded.

Layaway Plan! That brings back memories. We use to rock to one of their records while touring with my old band. I remember thinking it was rad to mix hardcore-punk with a more straight-forward metal sound. What did I know.

Originally Posted by beech!

Layaway Plan! That brings back memories. We use to rock to one of their records while touring with my old band. I remember thinking it was rad to mix hardcore-punk with a more straight-forward metal sound. What did I know.

Glad to see someone remembers them!

Originally Posted by notauser

I miss them, Forced Habit and Solutions To Substance are two of my favorite albums. Terry was an amazing musician and a friendly guy, had a few chats with him on multiple occassions about the state of the Canadian metal/punk scene back in the day. Also talks about how Choke were going to be the next benchmark of musicianship, how we were both wrong.

I see you've come across this, haha. Thought about telling you about it in the other thread, but all I have is a draft and I don't know when I'll finish. It was so hard to get images in particular, the only thing I ended up with from Layaway Plan was this poster:



But that draft got me an A in J school so it did serve its purpose to a certain extent.

That's cool, you don't hear a lot of people saying they wished they moved to Winnipeg, haha. But those days are long gone and sadly the scene leaves much to be desired in 2012. Touring bands coming through are few and far between too.

And thank you for the offer! Although like I said I have no idea when this will be finished.

I see, sadly that seems to be happening to a lot places in Canada. Although at least you aren't too far from the major centers, Winnipeg is kind of stuck in the middle of nowhere and the closest market (Minneapolis) is 8 hours away. Why didn't you like Toronto? They have some of the biggest festivals in the country and so many tours, which has always made me a little jealous. Thinking of moving out there next year, but we'll see. Calgary and Edmonton are booming quite a bit it seems.

You know what I'll never understand about Layaway Plan. Most bands can't recreate the energy of their first album, and just release change after change trying to re-capture that same energy and emotion. With LP it was the opposite, they totally developed this technical sound no doubt influenced by touring with Choke and released their best and most technical Album Solutions To Substance before breaking up. It's total reverse order to most bands. However at least its not as heart wrenching as listening to Choke's obvious breakup inspired album Slow Fade: Or How I learned to Question Infinity. As soon as I picked it up and listened to the lyrics I was like... no, please god no. That was a sad sad day for me. You could see at the last show though the total disdain in Stephan's drumming, it was like... lets get this over with while Jack/Clay/Shaun were shaking hands, hugging, signing old shirts from tours of years past. I dunno, I don't like to make assumptions but I do know they broke up because he went to school, and I don't really think that it was possible to replace a drummer in that band. It was too unique. Oh well, I'm getting all nostalgic. Bottom line is at least it was a great time to listen to Canadian Punk.